AACP Best Poster Award for Fellow, Alumna Kiles

Winning Project Compared Perceptions, Knowledge of Commnunity Lab Among Pharm.D. Students with, without Technician Experience

July 22 — UH College of Pharmacy alumna and Academic Pharmacy Fellow Tyler M. Kiles, Pharm.D., BC-ADM, won a Best Poster award at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's Pharmacy Education meeting July 13-17 in Chicago, Ill.

Kiles won the in the Resident, Fellow or Postdoc category of the Trainee Poster Competition at the AACP meeting. Her project, "Comparison of Knowledge Gained in a Community Pharmacy Lab Course Between Students with and Without Prior Community Pharmacy Technician Work Experience," was based on self-preception surveys and knowledge assessments of more than 200 first- and second-year Pharm.D. in a community dispensing lab. 

Administered at the pre- and post-course phases, the surveys captured technician work experience, and self-perceptions of drug card knowledge, workflow comfort, and community pharmacy practice confidence. In the knowledge assessments, which were also administered at the pre- and post-course phases, evaluated understanding of community pharmacy law, workflow, inventory, insurance, and prescription verification.

According to the surveys and assessments results, Kiles noted the existence of "a baseline knowledge and confidence gap between students with technician experience and those without in a community pharmacy simulation lab." According to Kiles and her collaborators, the results "support investigation into 'testing out' or separate tracks in a community lab for experienced and non-experienced students."

Coauthors on the project were UHCOP faculty members Alexa V. Zhao, Pharm.D., AAHIVP; Matthew A. Wanat, Pharm.D, BCPS, BCCCP, FCCM; Kevin Garey, Pharm.D., MS, FASHP; and Catherine L. Hatfield, Pharm.D.